8/13/2019 On Din and Noise

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8/13/2019 On Din and Noise

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ON DIN AND NOISE

and this is also seen especially in the case of cabmen who are Onthe look-out for a fare and incessantly crack their whips whiledriving at the slowest pace. The slightest touch of the whip hasmore effect. But assuming that it were absolutely necessaryconstantly to remind the horses of the whip s presence bysounding it, then a sound a hundred times quieter woul dsuffice for the purpose. For it is well known that animals noticethe slightest scarcely perceptible indications, both audible andvisible, the most surprising examples being furnished by traineddogs and canaries. Accordingly, the matter proves to be apiece of pure wantonness and in fact an insolent disregard forthose who work with their heads on the part of those membersof the community who work with their hands . That such aninfamy is tolerated in towns is a crude barbarity and an iniquity,the more so as it could very easily be stopped by a police orderto the effect that every whip-cord should have a knot at theend. There can be no harm in drawing the attention of theproletarians to the mental work of the classes above them, forthey have a mortal dread of all such work. A fellow who ridesthrough the narrow streets of a populous town with freepost-horses or on a free cart-horse, or even accompaniesanimals on foot, and keeps on cracking with all his might awhip several yards long, deserves to be taken down at once andgiven five really good cuts with a stick. All the philanthropists inthe world, and all the legislative assemblies which on goodgrounds abolish all corporal p unishment, will not persuade meto the contrary. But something even worse can often enoughbe seen, namely a carter who, alone and without horses, walksthrough the streets and incessantly cracks his whip. Thisfellow has become so accustomed to the crack of a whip, thanksto inexcusable leniency and toleration. With the universal

tenderness for the body and all its gratifications, is the thinkingmind to be the only thing that never experiences the slightestconsideration or protection, to say nothing of respect? Carters,porters, messengers, and the like are the beasts of burden of thehuman community; they should certainly be treated humanelywith justice, fairn es s consideration, and care, but they shouldnot be allowed to thwart the high er endeavours of the humanrace by wantonly making a noise. I would like to know howmany great and fine thoughts have already been cracked out of

ON DIN AND NOISE

the world by these whips. f had to give an order, there wouldsoo n be established in the heads of carmen an indelible nexusidearum between cracking a whip and getting a whipping. LetuS hope that the more intelligent and refined nations will makea start in this direction and that, by way of example, theGermans will then be made to follow suit. Meanwh ile, ThomasHood (UP the Rhine) says: For a musical people, they are themost noisy I ever met with. That they are so, however, is notdue to their being more inclined than others to make a noise,bu t to the apathy and insensibility (the result of obtuseness)of those who have to listen to it. They are not thereby disturbedin their thinking or reading for the very reason that they do notthink, but merely smoke, such being for them a substitute forthinking. The universal toleration of unneces sary noise, forexa mple the extremely vulgar and ill-mannered slamming ofdo ors, is simply a sign of mental bluntness and a general wantof thought. n Germany it seems as though it were positivelythe intention that no one should come to his senses on accountof noise; pointless drumming, for example.

Finally, as regards the literature that deals with the subjectof this chapter, I can recommend only one work, but it is a fineone, namely a poetical epistle in terze rime by the famouspa inter Bronzino entitled De romori, a Messer Luca A1artini.H ere a detailed and amusing description is given in a tragicomic style of the torment that one has to endure from themany different noises of an Italian town. This epistle is foundon page 258 of the second volume of the Opere burlesche delB erni, Aretina ed altri, apparently published at Utrecht in 1 7 7 1

According to a Bekanntmachung des Miinchener Th ierschutzvereins of Dec. 1858,unn ecessary whipping and cracking of whips are most strictly forbidden inN ur emberg.

2 [ Association of ideas .]